OPINION: Build diversity in bridge/tunnel management

Unfortunate that people of color not among higher-paid employees

Feb. 20, 2014

IN SUMMATION

The best way to diversity top management in any organization is to hire and groom a diverse mix of employees, the best of whom will rise toward the top.

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We are an increasingly diverse nation. At last count, 37 percent of Americans are a member of a minority group ó thatís roughly 3-in-8 citizens.

News flash: That number is bound only to grow. In the past few years, there have been more minority births than white births in the United States. In other words, the Class of 2031, taken in aggregate across the country, will contain more people of color than Caucasians.

For the sake of our nationís future, not to mention simple equity, itís vital that minorities have their fair share of opportunities. But, just as women have found since entering the workforce in large numbers starting 40 years ago, the pathways to achieving those opportunities can be fraught with obstacles.

Some of those obstacles are ingrained in the human psyche. We all know that racism and sexism are wrong, yet they persist in too many places. These scourges on our society might be more subtle than in years past, but they still cause great harm.

Other obstacles are more concrete. Hiring managers have a tendency to hire people much like themselves, so in some corners of our economy, diversifying a workforce can be tricky. Fixing this involves training and, sometimes, invoking the law when it comes to discrimination.

And some obstacles are unique to specific organizations, which still tend to be top heavy with white men as leaders. This is often true in local government. And itís the case with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, where 37 of 39 top earners were white men, according to an Eastern Shore News investigation. This is the case despite the fact that 43 percent of full-time employees are minority or women.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the commission overseeing the bridge-tunnel is overwhelmingly white and male. No African-Americans are among the 10 current members, and only two members are women. They are appointed by the Virginia governor.

A spokesman for the bridge-tunnel says the organization is committed to hiring qualified people and to diversification, which he says has stepped up a bit but is hampered by a limited number of management-level openings.

The wisest course for the bridge-tunnel, and for any organization, is to cast the net far and wide in hiring entry-level and mid-level employees, and then to provide all training and mentoring possible so that a diverse group of such hires will have every opportunity to rise someday into management positions.